SCPL Online NonFiction Book Club discussion

Greetings book club members! It’s no secret that Liz Pryor grew up wealthy. She’s very honest about her life of privilege in this memoir, and it’s one of the big things that sets her so far apart from the other girls at Gwendolyn House. I didn’t know much about Winnetka, Illinois initially, so I did a Google search to learn more, and was shocked to find out that Liz wasn’t just “well-off”. She was raised in a municipality that is ranked second-richest in the entire United States of America! (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winnetk...)

Liz somehow manages to exist for 17 years without realizing how privileged she really is. She admits on page 88 that she “had never given an ounce of thought” to the less fortunate, imagining that everyone had a happy home with food, love, and parents who cared. Were you surprised by this naivete?

I did not grow up wealthy by any means, but I do remember the first time I recognized my own privilege. I was about 10 years old, and travelled to Cuba with my mom and grandmother. Seeing the young Cuban children begging in the streets, literally swarming us in search of candy and money, made my heart break. I didn’t really realize what true poverty was before then, and witnessing it before my eyes made me see life a little differently, and appreciate the things I had in a new way.

Did you ever have a moment like this in your own life, where you realized how the “other half” lives? If so, how did this moment affect you?

~Diana~

I grew up with the knowledge that although we were not "well off" (defined in my youth as "going to Florida on March Break), our family did very well - considering how big our family was! It really struck me how people could live with a lot less when I went on a Service Trip to downtown Chicago in my early teens. Large families were crowded into tiny apartments and very young children played alone on the street. No one in our group was allowed to travel alone and we slept in a building with bars over the windows. That trip really opened up my eyes to very different living situations that people in the world can experience. Overall, however, I think my parents kept me and my siblings pretty grounded and appreciative of what we had.

I grew up on a fruit farm. I knew that their were kids at our local school had more means than I did. It was mostly in the higher grades of grade school when you went to play at someones house that you saw differences. Also the ability of families who could go to Florida every year or moms did not sew their clothes.
I never thought we were different just that we did somethings differently. We weren't poor we had everything anyone would ever need but I definitely had friends who were affluent.
I never saw real poverty until we went as a family on our one and only real vacation to Florida together. Staying in Atlanta Georgia was an eye opener to me.
Moving to Toronto for post secondary education let me see poverty and touring Scott Street Mission and walking from the subway to school was a much different experience than maybe not getting as many presents as my friends did.
It is hard to believe that Liz had no idea that poverty existed unless as you researched she grew up in a very affluent area.

Thank you, Marcella and Jo, for sharing your stories. Interesting how we all agree that regular trips to Florida are an indicator of a certain degree of wealth!

I think it is amazing and inspiring how most families make it work, even when there is little to go around. I guess I can understand why, knowing nothing other than her affluent lifestyle, Dorothy Pryor would have wanted to keep her children living in the style they were accustomed to. However, I definitely wondered while reading if moving to a more affordable neighbourhood might have made her life a bit easier and allowed her to spend more valuable time with her many children.

That decision, as well as the decision to send Liz to Gwendolyn House, certainly reinforces the importance some people place on "keeping up appearances".

I grew up with a single mom, three other siblings and no extended family, We were definitely poor. I was acutely aware of the dichotomy of wealth and poverty in our school and country from a very young age and it made me resentful of people like Liz, who had the luxury of being naïve. I knew a lot of girls that had similar stories to the ones Liz met at the Gwendolyn House.

I got an exchange opportunity to South Korea when I was 16 and driving through the poor neighbourhoods there was devastating. I had known poverty in Canada but this was so much worse. I thought I had grown up as part of "the other half" but I had no idea how privileged I was just to be Canadian.

Thank you so much for sharing your perspective, Valerie. It's interesting how travelling outside of Canada opened all of our eyes to more extreme poverty. I know there are places in Canada as well where people struggle greatly just to get by, but I too am so thankful to have grown up and to continue to live in this country.